Inside Bengal
The Terror With Two Faces Strict censorship in East Pakistan makes it almost impossible to learn what is happening there. Smuggling news despatches out of the country is a difficult and dangerous operation. The Sunday Times has obtained the report printed below, but because of the prevailing conditions is unable to identify the writer. What can be said is that the report is recent and absolutely reliable. An estimated 800 Mukti Bahini (Bangladesh guerrillas) operating in Dacca have launched a series of daylight bomb attacks on public buildings, forcing the Pakistan army into tight defensive positions in the city. On October 19, a bomb explosion at 10.57 am outside the Habib Bank building in Motijheel, the city’s main business centre killed five people, injured 13 others and wrecked seven cars, one taxi and two cycle-rickshaws. Next day, another bomb exploded on the fourth-floor of the State Bank building down the road. No one was killed but the explosion rocked the building, which also houses the local offices of the World Bank.
On October 10, there were several explosions in the Demra area where the jute warehouses are located, causing a big fire. Two nights earlier. mortar bombs landed on the administration block of the cholera hospital. It is also reported that Pakistan army losses in East Pakistan have risen from 18 to 129 per day. Carpenters are employed full time in the cantonments making coffins for officers who, presumably, get shipped home to West Pakistan for burial. The present daylight bomb attacks have broken a three-week lull in the activities of the Mukti Bahini after 80 of them were captured in Dacca by the Pakistan Army authorities around September 15. The big haul was a result of information extracted “under pressure” from two of their members who had been arrested earlier. Now the Mukti Bahini guerrillas are back, more daring.
For its part, the Pakistan Army has considerably strengthened security measures in the city, particularly in and around Dacca Airport. These are as much a precaution against guerrilla activities as against the threat of war with India.
Pillboxes have been built on the roofs of houses along the airport road. The airport buildings have been painted over with camouflage gray. Firing embrasures have been constructed around the airport. PIA Boeings once used to come in to land majestically flying over the Inter-Continental Hotel with all lights blazing. now they have changed their approach pattern, take them as much as possible over water and they fly in without navigation lights.
With the Bangladesh radio promising an increase in Mukti Bahini activity, Dacca was reported to be “poised on the knife-edge of expectancy.” Work in government offices is slowing down again and streets are deserted at night except for the cars of foreign residents and army men. The authorities have begun digging 350 shallow tube wells as a precaution against disruption of the city’s water supply, which now comes from a single station pumping river water into the mains. Blackouts and air-raid drills were started from September 24. Foreigners in Dacca and other parts of East Pakistan. who have hitherto been relatively safe, are now in double jeopardy.
On the one hand they are subject to harassment and personal attack by razakars. These paramilitary bully boys early this month severely beat up an English missionary, Mr. David Rowlands, who was traveling in Mymensingh to visit his congregation. On the other hand, expatriates would be the target of deliberate attack by the Mukti Bahini if suspected of any liaison with the martial law authorities.
Recently the Save the Children Fund workers in Bhola were told they could proceed with their work only as long as they had no dealings with the army and as little as possible with the administration. Reports reaching Dacca suggest the 100,000 Mukti Bahini guerrillas are currently operating in East Pakistan. In recent months they have blown up 165 bridges, damaged five ships in Khulna and Chittagong, Destroyed a 1,600-ton barge with 4,000 bales of jute at Narayanganj, and destroyed a power sub-station at Dacca. On August 27, eight razakars ware killed and 15 wounded when the Mukti Bahini mined their Gulshan parade ground.
The army, for its part, is reported to have “borrowed” 20 UN jeeps delivered in Chittagong several weeks ago. It has not yet been able to make the ChittagongComilla highway safe for regular traffic. As a result the dock-sheds in Chittagong are said to be bursting with goods. Some of these stocks are said to be rotting. Shed “F” was reportedly sealed because of the smell of rotting wheat. Little of this is mentioned in the Pakistan Press, which continues to report that the army is in full control of the province.
Reference: The Sunday Times, 31 October, 1971